While UFC 319 featured a middleweight title fight, there were big stakes at play in the featherweight division too.
In the co-main event, either man could’ve made a case for being the next challenger to Alexander Volkanovski’s title.
This was certainly the case after Lerone Murphy knocked Aaron Pico out cold in the first round with a devastating spinning elbow.
Along with immediately receiving praise from Dana White, Murphy’s win also attracted the attention of Volkanovski, who appeared to zero in on the undefeated Brit as his next challenger.
‘The Great’ went on to elaborate on his thoughts in a recent YouTube video.
Alexander Volkanovski gives big praise to Lerone Murphy for making a statement at UFC 319
In a video from his car, Alexander Volkanovski recapped the UFC 319 main card and gave his thoughts on all of the fights.
Of course, the one he was paying the most attention to was the co-main event where two of the top names in his division collided.
Lerone Murphy wasn’t necessarily being discussed as a potential challenger for Volkanovski in the near future.
In some of his recent wins, ‘The Miracle’ has been criticized for remaining undefeated without getting fans excited about seeing him compete inside the Octagon.
His stunning knockout over UFC debutant Aaron Pico is sure to change that, with Murphy delivering the statement he needed to put himself at the front of the line.
Volkanovski agreed with this sentiment when speaking about what this win now means for him and his next challenger.
“Massive knockout and you couldn’t script it any better. For me, I’m waiting to see who it is. Who do I think deserves it? I think Lerone Murphy. Then people are going to say, ‘Oh, but there’s the decisions’, as if he’s not exciting enough. That needs to be such a big factor nowadays and I understand that, I get it. Same for the UFC and the fans.
“Now you get a guy who goes in and does an absolutely massive knockout like that on a big card, on a seven-fight win streak or maybe more, I don’t know what it is. I mean, I think it’s a bit of a no-brainer.”
Alexander Volkanovski says he tried to push for Movsar Evloev but nothing came of it
Alexander Volkanovski also touched on another contender in the division who he made it pretty clear that he wanted to fight next after reclaiming the featherweight gold.
Movsar Evloev was originally scheduled to welcome Aaron Pico to the Octagon, before he withdrew from the fight and was replaced by Lerone Murphy.
Volkanovski, knowing that some people would say that Evloev is more deserving of the next title shot, shared that he had pushed for this to happen but it now looks like things are going in a different direction.
“I tried. I’m going to tell you right now, I tried to make that happen. I thought he deserves it. He did deserve it… It doesn’t look like it’s going to be Movsar, but I mean I tried with all of them. But now, it looks like it’s Lerone Murphy. It makes a lot of sense. So, let’s do Lerone Murphy in December. Sounds great.”
